Germain Jousse

Moïse Germain Louis Jousse (November 20, 1895, in Coulaines - March 21, 1988, in Monblanc), was a highly decorated officer in the French Army with the rank of Général de corps d'armée and a member of the French Resistance during World War II.

He refused to accept the defeat of France in 1940, he secretly took part in the establishment of a plan of allied intervention in North Africa while serving as staff officer of Vichy Army in Algiers. Jousse joined the Free French Army in November 1942 and held various staff positions in Charles de Gaulle's Army until the end of War.

Following the War, Jousse remained in the Army, served in various high command capacities and retired in 1955 as Général de corps d'armée (rough equivalent to three star lieutenant general). He was then recalled to active duty following a Algiers putsch of 1961 and served as Member of the Supreme Military Tribunal.

World War I

In 1914 Germain Jousse conscripted into the army. Promoted to second lieutenant in June 1915, he held the role of company commander from June 1916 and became lieutenant in November of the same year. Wounded at Saint-Dié on October 1, 1917, he rejoined his unit after one month of hospitalization having refused any recuperation. Promoted to captain in April 1918, he was decorated with the Légion d'honneur on the battlefield in September 1918, for having advanced to the position of Celles-sur-Aisne and for having destroyed an enemy company and capturing numerous prisoners.

He himself took part in the execution of the November 8 Putsch and opposing the Vichyist 'plan of the maintenance of law and order' which was intended to be opposed to any invasion. Thus he would facilitate the occupation of strategic points by the resistance by providing them 'VP' arm-bands - 'Public Volunteers', with letters from the Public Commander destined for the military collaborationists, with mission orders to raise the state of security. He personally carried out the arrest of General Louis Koeltz, Commander of the Algerian 19th Army Corps, and went onto the battlefront to put an end to the fire of a resistance battalion protecting the invasion point of Sidi Ferruch for the American troops. The success of the putsch can be attributed to Germain Jousse, who allowed 400 armed civilians to arrest General Alphonse Juin, Commander in chief, as well as the collaborationist Admiral François Darlan, and who paralysed the mobilisation of the Vichyist 19th Army Corps during the 15 hours in which the Allied forces unloaded unopposed, encircled Algiers, and achieved surrender the same evening with its port intact.

Death

Jousse then served as the first president of the Association of the French Liberation of November 8, 1942 and died on March 21, 1988, in Monblanc in Gers. He was buried in Mans dans la Sarthe.

Decorations His decorations were as follows:

Publications General Jousse also published two works:

Considérations sur l'Armée de demain, Paris, 1946 L'Armée Nationale, Paris 1947